Dante's Divine Comedy
In medieval Italy, politicians (and others) who behaved like criminals had to reckon with creative writers, some of whom risked arrest and death to speak truth to power. Never one to mind his own business, Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) adapted the literary genre of the dream vision to searing political critique; the result, his Divine Comedy, teems with the damned in Hell, the hopeful in Purgatory, and the joyful in Paradise.
In his epic imaginary tour of the afterlife, Dante vividly urges his readers to adhere to a rules-based cosmic order even as he proclaims a bold new vision of the poet’s guiding role in society. In this course, we’ll explore Dante’s Comedy in English translation, though we’ll also glance frequently at the Italian original and at some images that accompanied the poem in various fourteenth- and fifteenth-century illuminated manuscripts.
No prior coursework in Italian language or literature is required.
Offered: Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 11:30 - 12:20
CRN:
Image: Dante and Virgil before Satan, shown muching munches on Cassius, Judas, and Brutus. British Library, MS Yates Thompson 36 (1440-ca. 1450), fol. 62v.